


Stranger Hospital

by BatBoyBlog



Category: Red Band Society, Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: AU, Coma, Gen, Hospital, Sickness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-09-15 17:39:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16937739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BatBoyBlog/pseuds/BatBoyBlog
Summary: A hospital AU for the Stranger Things characters based on the TV show The Red Band Society





	1. Chapter 1

I really wish I could just roll over and go to sleep. I can’t, I can’t roll over, and I can’t go to sleep. I’m not really awake either. I’m not asleep and I’m not awake. My name is Will Byers and I have been in a coma for 5 months, one week, 3 days and 13 hours. I know the hours because my brother Johnathan got me a talking clock the 4th day in here, it tells me the hours. 

Okay I can hear what you’re think, well not really, but I can image, so stop it! don’t you go feeling bad for me. I spent way too long feeling bad for myself, it was depressing. So I’ve decided to try and focus on the positives. There are more than you might think. I’m alive for one thing.

My mom, brother, and me got into a car wreck. It was horrible, the car flipping over and over. Mom broke her arm and I was really scared for her. I didn’t realize I was the one in trouble till we got to the hospital and threw up blood. I had to get rushed into surgery, and that’s when I met Nurse Jackson. She held my hand and told me it’d be okay and she’d be right there when I woke up. I feel kinda bad about that because I didn’t wake up, and I know she wants to be there when it happens.

Sorry I was being positive! Nurse Jackson is a positive, she’s really nice. She always talks to me when she’s in my room. She doesn’t talk like I’m a baby or stupid the way a lot of people do, she just talks like I’m awake and answering back. She’s always really gentle and says sorry when she needs to stick me with a needle. Some of the night nurses aren’t as careful. Nurse Jackson is how I know what’s going on in the hospital, I think she gossips more about the doctors and other nurses then she would if I was awake. She sings a lot when she isn’t talking she’s in her church’s choir. Sometimes she just stays late and reads to me.

Nurse Jackson is my favorite, but Nurse Gomez is a close second. He’s all energy comes in talking a mile a minute. He talks like we’ve known each other for years and I’m another 30 year old gay guy not a 13 year old boy. So I know maybe a little more about his life than my mom would like but I don’t mind, I’m just happy he talks. It’s funny I know about his boyfriend, his dogs, his landlord, the ex from hell, his Christian sister, but I don’t know what he looks like. Nurse Jackson was the last person I really met, I “met” Nurse Gomez after, I’ve never seen his face. 

Another positive is that my mom and Johnathan visit a lot, I’m in the pediatric ward in Indianapolis about an hour from home in Hawkins. Mom cries a lot and I wish she wouldn’t, I try really hard to move, to wake up when she cries. I never can and that makes me feel shitty. Johnathan is better he talks some, about stuff we did together. Best thing though is he made sure my room had a boombox and lots of good music. Though the nurses only play it with the volume turned way down. It’s not really the same to listen to The Clash when they’re whispering. 

A lot of what you know about hospitals isn’t really right. I’ll leave out the gross stuff, thats embarrassing enough without you all knowing. I bet you’re imagining a machine beeping with my heart rate right? and the machine is there but they only beep when something is going wrong. Really it’s very quiet, I can hear the machines humming softly, the drip drip of my IV, “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” is playing very softly.

I hear it out in the hall way, click, click click, Mike’s crutches on the smooth hall way. It’s hard for me to work out the others’ schedules because I never get to leave my room, and I can’t talk. I don’t think Mike has physical therapy now, or school. He could be going to see Jane in the eating disorder wing, or visiting Lucas who’s room is next to mine. Mike could just have a doctor’s appointment or test, though the Nurses tended to insist on wheelchairs for those. Mike hated the wheelchairs and I couldn’t really blame him. 

I heard the clicking stop in the doorway and then I heard him coming in. Mike is a positive, very much a positive. “Hey Will” He says I wish I could say hi back, I try but nothing happens, as always. “Mind if I sit down, my leg is killing me” He laughs. His leg, his real leg, nearly did kill him, he had a kind of bone cancer I can’t say, they took his right leg off just above the knee. I hear him sit heavily in the chair next to my bed. It’s more of a crash than anything else and I worry he’ll tip over end up on the floor, again, and I won’t be able to help, again. 

I hear some grunts and swearing then a long happy sigh I feel something plop onto the bed next to me. It’s Mike’s fake leg it rubs the skin of his stump raw and he hates wearing it. I feel Mike take my hand, he doesn’t always do this but it’s nice when he does. “You doing okay?” he asks like I can really answer him. “Sorry i didn’t visit for a few days I got a bad result and they gave me an extra dose and…. it was pretty gross, Dustin can tell you later” Dustin loves telling me all the gross stuff that happens around here, I don’t know why, maybe I look like the kind of kid who likes that?

“Jane is doing better, eating, I hope she can get out of here soon” Mike goes on. “Lucas is doing really well, they have him on something new” Lucas is next to me so I hear him coughing all the time, he has cystic fibrosis, I don’t think he’s doing as well as Mike thinks. There are times I’m glad I can’t talk. “Oh there’s a new girl! her name is Max, I know boy’s name, but she’s cool. I guess she’s got an enlarged heart or something. They’re making her wear a heart monitor all the time, and they won’t let her skateboard she’s so pissed” 

I wonder what Mike looks like, really looks like. I’ve seen Mike, well a version of Mike aways. When we met he had hair and I know he’s bald, and he had both his legs. Mike is still talking when I feel something pull at the corner of my mind. 

I’m standing in the front entry of the hospital, I don’t know why it’s always here. It’s the front of the hospital, but it’s also not. It’s empty for one thing, for another it’s spotlessly clean, and there’s no outside showing through the windows. This has happened a few times, the first time was about 3 weeks into my stay. It’s when I met Mike, he lost his leg, and I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself. I look down and she a girl with red hair laying face down on the floor. “Max?” I ask and she lifts her head and looks at me confused. “What the hell?” she saids looking around “where the hell are we?” I shrug, everyone asks and I have no idea. I can still hear Mike talking his voice far off and echoing. Max is staring at me now, “you’re… you’re the kid in the coma aren’t you?” i nod and say “hi I’m Will, nice to meet you” She gets up slowly still looking at me like I might be dangerous. “Does this mean I’m dead?” 

“I’m not dead!” I object. She thinks about this for a second “yeah I guess not, so why am i here?” I don’t really have a better answer to that question than I do the where question but I have a theory. “Well, if I had to guess you had some kind of heart attack and nearly died” Max looked horrified. “Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure you’ll be okay” I wasn’t lying so far no one I had met like this had died. “What the hell is….” she just looked at me and then around. “You’ll get used to it?” I wasn’t sure that was true or that it should be. We both heard the low growl from deep inside the building. Oh yeah that’s the other problem with being in a coma, I can’t really warn any one about that…..


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dustin has a nightmare

“Shit shit shit shit!” Dustin repeated over and over as he ran down the twisting turning halls of the hospital. His sneakers slapped against the floor. He didn’t look back but he could tell it was gaining on him, he could hear the scrabble of clawed feet getting closer. The hospital was empty it’s glaring electric lights flickering on and off randomly. 

As Dustin slide around a corner he shouted “Will! where the fuck are you!” Dustin had been to this strange mirror hospital a few times, but Will was always here. “WILL!” he yelled it was right behind him now and the horrible thought it had gotten Will crossed his mind. Panic flooded Dustin has he tried to put on a final burst of speed and felt a hand fall on his shoulder “WILL!” 

Dustin’s eyes flew open and he thrashed trying to run straight out of bed. “Wow wow WOW! dude!” Dustin’s head snapped around and came face to face with the wide startled eyes of Steve the night orderly. Dustin blinked quickly realizing that Steve’s hands were on his shoulders keeping him in bed. His breath slowly and the alarm faded from Steve’s face. 

“Who’s Will dude?” Steve asked as he lifted his hands off Dustin’s shoulders and reached down to pull the blankets back up. Dustin was so taken off guard by the question, and still half asleep he told the truth. “The kid in the coma”. Steve gave him an odd look while he straightened out the sheets tucking Dustin in. “You were saying his name in your sleep”. Dustin tried to think of what to say to that. 

He’d never met Will, at least not while Will was awake. As far as the staff knew Dustin didn’t know Will at all. Dustin gave a little shrug “I guess I want him to wake up?” That was true as far as it went. Steve nodded then grabbed the chair and pulled it up next to Dustin’s bedside. “Want to talk about it?” Steve offered. “What? Will waking up?” Dustin looked at him confused. 

Steve rolled his eyes. “Your nightmare you were trying to run straight into the air man”. Dustin looked away “don’t you got something else to do?” Steve shrugged. “Not really, they pay me to make sure you guys don’t fall out of bed” He gave a small smile. Dustin looked at Steve, really looked for the first time, his slicked back hair and eyes darting around. For just a second Dustin wanted to tell him everything, but he thought of the psych unit a few floors over his head and kept his mouth shut. 

Steve sat for a long moment before shrugging again and clapping his knees as he got up. “Well if you don’t want to talk about it that’s up to you, but I’m here all night if you change your mind, get some rest kid.” With that he was gone. Dustin rolled over and acted like he was going to sleep. As soon as Steve’s steps had faded away Dustin’s hand shot out and started searching for something.

He pulled his walkie-talkie to his face and pulled the antenna out. “Mike you awake? Over” The walkie-talkie crackled and popped for a few moments before a groan came over it. “ugh I am now… over” 

“Mike it’s getting closer” There was a beat then Mike sounded a lot more awake. “Is it out? is it here?” 

“Not yet but I don’t think Will can keep it in there for long, we need a plan, we need to figure out how to wake him up”


End file.
